Letters: Taxi drivers barring way at station for other motorists

What can be done to educate those many cab drivers who persist in gridlocking Edinburgh's Waverley station even when the special electronic sign at the top of the ramp clearly flashes up the message "Taxi Rank Full"?

Friday evening was particularly bad with 90 per cent of the traffic in there being cabs. The few private cars that went down the ramp couldn't get through, visitors were trapped, and rail passengers couldn't get across the station.

Can't they understand English? Or is the sign too small? Or should opticians be hired by the drivers through their association?

Or, is it just good for taxi business?

John Addison, Roslin, Midlothian

Popular service could use a lift

THE reopened railway between Bathgate and Airdrie, with many additional services at the rush hour, is proving very popular, especially with the Saturday half-hourly service running via Glasgow right to Helensburgh.

As a regular traveller I was promised lifts at Haymarket station to coincide with the new service. The lifts may be there, hidden by all the preparatory work. But when will they be in operation for the hard-pressed passenger? How late are the lifts running?

Colin C Maclean, Hillpark Avenue, Edinburgh

Questions over No 10 spin role

WHETHER David Cameron's spin doctor Andy Coulson jumped or was pushed, someone who resigned as editor of the News of the World over the phone-hacking affair that took place under his leadership should never have been allowed anywhere near 10 Downing Street.

Jack Fraser, Clayknowes Drive, Musselburgh

Council wasteful with our money

CAN someone in the council explain how its systems work?

A group of workers started refusing to apply for overtime.

The same workforce are now following their council instructions for the way the job should be done, and now staff staying until their finish time has led to a breakdown of the department.

To reach the same levels of success, the council has now spent upwards of 10 million, and it has increased the numbers of workers by employing from the private sector.

One day I passed ten guys working on Ravelston Dykes Road; they were sweeping and removing leaves and lumps of snow.

The council cut back its own workforces so far that this has now become the norm. The question has to be asked, why was it possible for the in-house staff to reach their targets understaffed every year and only use an overtime budget of 1.3m a year?

Can I suggest the answer was that the staff were good at their jobs? So again I have to ask, why? The money spent so far would have solved any problems if the council had negotiated instead of digging in and waiting for the workforce to be bullied into accepting the offer.

Now we have legal claims being made and industrial tribunals, all of which will cost the council plenty to fight.

How have these changes led to budget savings?

Paul French, Saughton Mains Street, Edinburgh

School plans hit by land issues

WE would like to correct the impression given in the Evening News (January 20) about a plot of land on the Royal Edinburgh Hospital site.

The site was considered for a school (not South Morningside Primary) as part of the PPP1 programme in 2001 but was taken out of the programme because it would have taken too long to acquire the land.

Planning for new schools remains firmly the responsibility of the council and is not within the remit of the NHS. There are no plans to use that site in the foreseeable future and, because of financial pressures, we have no plans to replace South Morningside Primary School.

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren, education leader